Gear cable frame adjusters both snapped!

[NoIdea]

Just removing everything from my frame to start the cleanup. Upon undoing the front cable frame mounts / adjusters both were so rusty they just sheared.



close up of the mess that's left.



I've tried a few things but the metal is so weak I don't think screwing them out is an option.
What now?

Only idea I have now is to drill them out and the replacement cables will just have to rest in the enlarged holes.

[landsurfer]

Hot water and easy outs ????
Boiling water should not hurt the paint especially if you mask the frame off with a cut up milk bottle ....

[531colin]

I assume this will be an alloy frame with un-greased steel cable adjusters?
You get horrible corrosion of alloy in steel or steel in alloy unless you keep it greased.
The products of corrosion will dissolve in ammonia solution....in these days of "Elf 'n' safety" you can't buy strong ammonia solution easily, so its household ammonia, change the solution regularly, and patience. Once the bulk of the corrosion products is gone, the broken adjusters should come out relatively easily, you will need to jam something in the adjusters to turn them.....but reasonably gently, you have enough damage already.
Check the ammonia won't spoil the paint....try it somewhere you won't see.

[NoIdea]

Oh dear, we're at home chemistry level...

Just bought a 100g bag of Alum powder from fleabay, will just dissolve the threads out of there instead.

[Gattonero]

Wow, look at the corrosion at the back of the forks too.

Btw, those cable-stops (they're not "adjusters" anymore since they are stuck!) seem to be fairly spaced so you could use a long drill bit, say 2.5 then 4.0mm to drill what's left, then jam in a suitable Torx wrench and get it out.
I've done this many times. Followed by "use more GT85 and a drop of oil every now and then!"

[aljohn]

I've just recently finished my build of an early aluminium Dolan . It had some corrosion which was easy to remove, but the cable adjusters had been snapped off and painted over ? Luckily the adjusters were very close to the head tube so I was able to drill them out without the chuck damaging the frame. I retapped them and fitted two new ones. As I said, I was lucky, I don't know if you would be able to do the same with the position of your adjusters. Best of luck.

[NoIdea]

Wow, look at the corrosion at the back of the forks too.

Yup, the bike has been abused. Which although is a terrible shame, is why the bike has landed in my lap.
I'm in the process of reversing the PO lack of maintenance.

I think if I try to drill the adjusters out I'll end up damaging the threads
I'm confident Alum will do the trick, I'll take some picture when I get going on it (next week now), should be able to dissolve all the steel and I'll then clean the threads out with a tap. The new cable adjusters will be installed with calcium "marine" grease.

[MikeDee]

Penetrating oil, freeze spray, drill out with larger and larger drill bits that won't touch the frame threads, EZ out. Don't use or heat or corrosive chemicals that can damage the frame or the finish.

[dragonrider]

If you can still fit cables in but they won't adjust buy some in-line adjusters.

[NoIdea]

I've started the Alum bath process.

A small pot (bottom of beer can) with a solution of Alum powder and water being heated by a desk lamp.

This Alum solution will only attack/dissolve the steal so the frame should be unaffected.
I'll check progress later on but I'm expecting this to take 24 hours each side.

[[XAP]Bob]

Dispose of the bear carefully.

And be grateful that not all lamps are LED

[nigelnightmare]

I take it that was a can of hoffmiester then.

[NoIdea]

San Miguel the "bear can" has been corrected.

and it didn't work... just made the thread look like new.
Either Alum doesn't work with Stainless steel or the those adjusters are an alloy with very low steel content.

So they have been drilled and I have some push in type adjusters on there way to to me.

[NoIdea]

Now sorted.
Drilled the holes through up to 6mm (which cleared the remains of the old adjuster fully).
The partially drilled up to 6.5mm (half depth from the front). This allowed the push fit adjusters to sit in there and then they just needed a tap with a hammer to seat them in there nice and tight.